Significant Events in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe Between 1985-1990 timeline

  • Gorbachev introduces pestroika

    Gorbachev introduces pestroika
    Pestroika was a political movement for reformation within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during the 1980s
  • Gorbachev introduces Glasnost

    Gorbachev introduces Glasnost
    In March of 1985 Gorbachev introduced his program of Glasnost. Glasnost (“openness”) introduced profound changes in economic practice, internal affairs and international relations.
  • Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty signed

    Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty signed
    The treaty eliminated nuclear and conventional ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with intermediate ranges, defined as between 500–5,500 km (300–3,400 miles).
  • Jozsef Antall elected prime minister of Hungary

    Jozsef Antall elected prime minister of Hungary
    Jozef was the first democratically-elected Prime Minister of Hungary after the fall of Communism
  • Berlin Wall Falls

    Berlin Wall Falls
    On November 9, 1989, as the Cold War began to thaw across Eastern Europe, the spokesman for East Berlin's Communist Party announced a change in his city's relations with the West.
  • Vaclav Havel elected president of Czechoslovakia

    Vaclav Havel elected president of Czechoslovakia
    He served as the last president of Czechoslovakia. He then served as the first president of the Czech Republic after the Czech–Slovak split.
  • Lech Walesa elected president of Poland

    Lech Walesa elected president of Poland
    He was the Soviet bloc's first independent trade union, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983, and served as President of Poland from 1990 to 1995.
  • Germany reunification takes place

    Germany reunification takes place
    in 1990 in which the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany to form the reunited nation of Germany.
  • 1st general elections in Romania

    General elections were held in Romania on 20 May 1990. They were the first elections held after the overthrow of the Communist regime six months earlier, and also the first public presidential elections.